What do you feel like insurance agents need to do in terms of branding themselves, their agencies, the carriers they represent? When you are marketing something you're not in control of, you're not in control. The very last thing I do, I get agreement from them and then I end the call with making damn sure whatever I say I'm going to do gets done. How many hours did your team spend last week on the cost of reduce? Well comparisons, loss run extractions, now multiply that by what your producers cost per hour. That's the number that outmarket eliminates. The reason that I love a sin is they are the only vendor focused on helping agents automate all of their manual finances in accounting practices which is really the boring stuff but that's really where the rubber meets the road in terms of profitability to your agency. You know we're going to write business with carriers that make it easy for us to write business with. If the conditions have to be right for you to succeed, your success is conditional. It's not real success. Play like champions man. We'll go. Insurance agents around the world welcome to the Insurance Gala's podcast. My name is Scott Howell, your fearless host and leader. Insurance agency owner and insurance evangelist for our Protect Insurance and Financial Services face out of Huntsville, Alabama. And before you start in today's episode, please help me welcome. He is a six foot three sophomore from Southern California, a parade first team of American rivals, five star recruit. He is the founder and CEO of outmarket AI. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together and welcome my new co-host, Mr. Vichal Sanklaw. How are you Vichal? I'm Ben Gakes thought. Thanks for having me on the show. Thank you for being here. Guys, we have a co we have a co co host Bradley Flowers. Hey, Bradley. Hey, everybody. I'm Bradley proud to play third fiddle today. It's fun. Bradley Flowers, we have an outstanding episode. As you well know, for the past eight hundred and seventeen years, we have been helping insurance agents any way we can. It is a three-legged stool. And today, ladies and gentlemen, today we have a very special guest, a man that can help everyone listening to this. You need to pull over on the side of the road. Be safe about it. Make sure you put your blinker on. Pull over on the side of the road. We are about to have a great American on this podcast, but we're also going to have a very successful insurance agent and CEO that I think you guys are really going to want to listen to his perspective on the industry today, how he got here, where he sees the industry going. I am so excited to have him on the show. But before I introduce him, Bradley, I have a story to tell. Okay. I'm scared. Guess what I've been doing for two hours today. See. No. Meeting with auto owners to discuss, I protect insurance, getting a contract. I intentionally did not bring your name up. Probably good idea. Yeah. Smart. Great meeting today. We've already done this once. This is our second go around our previous auto owners rep. Shout out to Katie. She was transferred or took another position within the company and moved up to, I believe, the Missouri area. But we had a great time today. We met with our Alabama rep here, the new Alabama rep. And we'll see what happens. It's just one of those things. Auto owners is one of those companies that they don't move quickly. They're very intentional about the things they do. And it's not going, you know, it's a little bit like a progressive job interview. How many interviews did they say they did it progressive? Nine. No, blue. Yeah. It's about what I'm going through right now is where you're interviewing people. I've got 16 candidates and I would hire all of them. Damn. So I want to do that. Just find out who wants it, you know. Bradley. Bradley. First time all. That's what we're going to do. Yeah, we're just going to do that. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to bring our very special guest star on today. I'm so excited. As I say, every week, this podcast is a three-legged stool. We have technologies such as outmarket AI. In my opinion, one of the most incredible technologies we have in this industry. So we've got that. That's one leg of the stool. Then we have extremely successful insurance agency owners that can help you hopefully one day become what they are, which is extremely successful. And that's the guy we have on today. And I want to give him the introduction that he's always deserved. Ladies and gentlemen, he is originally and currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University with a bachelor's degree in marketing. And he is an extremely proud father of three who loves all things around the water, including boating and water sports. He loves his job and he thinks it's a privilege to do it each and every day. He has a deep appreciation for fitness and the importance of a routine to keep his priorities in order. With more than two decades of leadership experience and insurance and business development, he brings a deep understanding of operational excellence and partnership building. My God, I've been talking about that for two hours today. That is auto owners relationships. His career includes executive roles in the insurance industry and entrepreneurial ventures, equipping him with a unique perspective on growth and collaboration. He is today the CEO of Houchens Insurance Group, one of the largest privately held insurance agencies in the United States of America. And since assuming the role in 2022, he has led the organization through strategic growth initiatives, including market expansion and strengthening its hair. It comes, ladies and gentlemen, y'all better listen to this. In the meantime, it's employee-owned culture through an ESOP structure. Under his leadership, Hig has consistently ranked among the top 50 insurance brokers nationally and earned multiple best places to work honors. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my profound honor today to introduce to you first time guest on the IGP. Mr. Andy Barker, how are you Andy? Awesome, man. What a great, well, thank you for the reduction. Dude. You've done it all. You are, you know, if I could pick a guest for the IGP to talk to the 50,000 insurance agents that listen to this program every week, you're the guy. I want you. Well, first of all, I've got so many things to talk about. I know you're super proud of your kids. And before we climb in my delorean and go back in time and talk about how you got into this crazy industry we call insurance. Let's talk about a few other things that maybe you don't know I know. So I wrote down a couple of things here that I found to be very interesting. Where are they? Here they are. Here we go. Here we go. You own your own D1 sports training gym. That's fantastic. That speaks to your passion for fitness and health. Let's talk about that for just a second. What's it like to own your own gym? Well, I'm blessed to have great people to run it first of all. So I understand it's the accountability for me because you have no excuse then when you own it. So that's really what's proud of you. You can't be a fat gym owner. Exactly. That doesn't work. So that comes a responsibility accountability overhead. But partnered with one of our producers here, one of our top producers here and me and I along with a couple other true fitness trainers, what came together and bought the D1 franchise but also proud to say they're client of ours and we represent several of them across the country. So you'll see that common theme and anything that I do. I'm usually involved with it because of the insurance that is associated with it. So, may I bid for a lot of so many ways? It's a bottom-ends. I think that sound-lady sound-mind is an important part for us to be successful in life and D1 has been able to give that to me and I wanted to be part of that. When it came available to be sold, we took advantage of it. And I would say it's a big money making venture would not be the truth but from a quality of life accountability, my wife works out there, my friends work out there, I have a unbelievable accountability group and, as a matter of fact, our organization has its insurance group on all members there from that perspective. So they come in our office twice a week and we believe in passing that same fitness culture throughout our organization. So, blessed with that. I'm honored to be associated with a great organization like D1, honestly. So, we try to pull ourselves with the company that we keep just like we do in our own partnerships. I love when I have a friend who owns a business. It's like a gym or restaurant or something like that. Reaches out to me for advice on maybe a marketing campaign or how to structure something. And it's fun when you work in such a regulated industry like we do to flex your muscles and something that's not really regulated at all. Like I can't wake up this morning and say insurance is 15% off today but I could do that at a gym. Does that kind of fit that outlet for you?
a little bit. It's a little more fun. - Man, man, you hit it out. It absolutely. It's seven different to that variety course. I love our industry. I'll tell you a little bit about that story about how we got to where we are. So it's hard to compete. I think it's one of the best secrets out there, to be honest with you, but having some association with a couple of other businesses that I have like that, which I find experts that don't have a room. I'm a big believer in partnering with the right people. But then you get to add that you're a little bit of flavor to all that, bring newness to it. So yeah, I love that part of it. And just being able to have some input into those things and how to make it better. But especially when you're a client of those things, and really get to experience on a daily basis, create an environment that you'll find out I'm all about the client experience. And that's a consistent theme and everything that do, especially with insurance. - Well, it's one of those things too, like the way that the customer pays you for a gym membership is very similar to insurance. Scott and I have a friend who sold his insurance agency and opened a pest control. And he's like, basically, it's insurance. I'm approaching it the same way and they've scaled it up really quick. But it's always fun to me to see the similarities and two different businesses. - I mean, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing somebody that is not physically in shape and watch them go through that stage of going through that work out with the gentleman today. He had his 250th workout. He's lost 56 pounds and he is a machine today. He was not a machine two years ago when he started. And I mean, just to see that, like I heard my arms when I tell you that story, running as a sensational, and he just walked in that gym one day, and we had to create an experience there that kept him coming back. And that's what we want to do in all that we do. But just like your friend in his business, and a restaurant, whatever we want to talk about, insurance, man, we want that repetitive experience to be consistent and to be something that is memorable to them and life impacting. For him to say, "Hey, I worked out 250 times. We get a picture with us today." And there's nothing more rewarding from my perspective. I want that same experience inside, outside anything I'm associated with. - Well, and it's a good segue, too, to Vishal as well, because I was having a conversation. We're doing a hiring blitz right now. And a lot of the candidates I'm interviewing are with more like old school agencies. And I'm kind of going through some of the technology we're using. I was actually showing somebody outmarket, Vishal. And she was like, "I'm doing all this manually right now." And I said, "A lot of people think, especially people that don't use technology, they think that technology replaces the customer experience, but it actually enhances it. Because what it does is it takes away the mundane work, so that you can, it's going to save you time. What should you spend that time on interfacing with your customer and working on your experience and all that kind of stuff?" - Yeah. - Yeah, no, I think that's exactly what we've seen Bradley is. And Andy, part of a great point, I think a couple of things I want to call out is one, when you use your own products, it gives you that deep appreciation of what the end-class experience should look like. I mean, I've spent my time at Uber and Meta, and both of the companies were really pushing you to use your own products, and give us that feedback. And when we kind of at art market, when we see what people are able to do, once they are not doing a lot of this time consuming work, they are thinking about the client. They have that extra time to not go in and look at sort of, let me create and spend this extra time, I have to look at a summary of everything I've done for this client in the end time here, and put that together. Like, it's very hard for them to do that because they just don't have time to start for resources. So now being able to do that and put that extra touch in terms of the service they provide is what really truly differentiates. I was hearing a story from a customer where they had a client reach out, and they've been reaching out to their, like, you know, at least in agency for a certificate. They've emailed a few times, like, didn't hear it. It was like two weeks, and they're still not able to kind of get a certificate going. And they were like, let me just call this other agency, and they got on the call, and they're like, just being able to talk to them and having that experience, and then they be out of the account, they got the account, and they were able to issue the certificate, and guess what? They're investing in an experience where the clients themselves can log in and get their own certificates. So the point that I'm trying to make here is that customers are now expecting that level of service from, like, you know, from the point of the gym, they go out, the insurance company that they work with, is like, they want the next level of experience, and how do we free up people to provide that experience? Right? So that's that's what we are focusing on, yeah? Well, it's like, you know, insurance will never be bought, and sold like, you know, bought a vacuum on Amazon today. But that's the, that's what they expect. And so we have to try to get as close to that level of customer experience as we can. Yeah. And, you know, essentially, you say that, because we talk about it all the time inside of our four wells, and especially in our partnership with Michelle, is that what we want is that we want to enhance the back-and-experience so much that we can truly take a true customer experience on that final mile to the client, so we talk about all the time. And how do we enhance that by taking all these other things, and not, and having them automated and efficient and effective, where not only is it making better opportunity for those people to focus specifically on that last mile, so that they can enhance the sales experience, but also for truly enhancing the employee experience while they're working inside that system. Because we're implementing the things that we've been able to do without market, Michelle and his team. And that's changed in the quality of their jobs and what they're doing and where their focus is and their effectiveness. And I don't know that we were able to measure that on the front side. And it's a hard thing to put in metrics too. But if you put in jobs, that's fact, and the perspective or metrics around that, you would see that we have vastly improved there, and people are enjoying their jobs more, so they never. Because they're not facing six tons of paperwork on their desk because they're able to officially be able to get through that, and able to focus on the most important thing, which is that final mile to the client. I'll tell you a quick story that I'll let you back to it, Andy. I don't think I've told this on the podcast. I know I've told this in public settings before. So I get a phone call. So when we started our agency, I cared a lot about the user interface of our systems. And I can never put my finger on why, but I needed it to look futuristic, right? And I'm a younger guy. I was a younger guy when I started the agency. Even though I don't look it. And I. It was. But natural, you know, I'm going to hire younger people. And I've got introduced to a guy who was the go-to-market lead for insurance at Apple. And we get on the call. And for those who listen, a lot of the big tech companies will have someone who's in charge of an industry. And their job is to make the products better for them, because that's what that role does. And he said, you know, he was telling me this. And he said, you know, my job is to make Apple products work better for the insurance industry, carriers, brokers, agents. And we were particularly interesting to him is we're one of one agency in Alabama, all on Mac. And he said, insurance agencies are going to hire Gen Z and Nell Gen Alpha coming to the workforce. This group has been on at the Apple ecosystem, the majority of them, their entire life. And you're going to sit them in front of a Windows computer in front of Legacy Tech that looks like an Excel spreadsheet and expect that that does not have a negative impact across the future of the insurance industry. And I said, you just explained to me why I care what user interface looks like. Because I think the tech discussion we have around customer experiences create, but employee experience, I think, is even more important. Talking about my language, Bradley, and truly being able to do that, think about our ability to be able to do that and what impact that has for them to deliver a good experience to the client when they are having that relational conversation, you know, whatever it can be and to serve or it could be even to a claim perspective, but they're able to fully focus on that versus think what else they need to be doing other than that. And that's what our whole model is about. It's proven to quality, effectiveness, and truly the experience they're expecting. Sorry, I didn't mean to get off there. That's big. No, no, you're good. That's something I'm passionate about. That's why we made such great partners. So Andy, it's time for you to climb in this delorean with me. Let's go back in time for just a minute. You were running sales, singular wireless, over 200 people, I believe, employed. And how did you trip one day and fall into the insurance industry? I just want you to go back in time, talk about how you got into the industry and then just kind of bring us up to the day. Well, so I first 10 years of my career was with DelSouth, full corporate environment, and DelSouth at that point in time, and a DelSouth mobility turned singular wireless eventually at AT&T. So I got to experience that side of the house. I was very fortunate, as you mentioned earlier, to go to WKU and I was in a fraternity there, and had fraternity brothers that were in the insurance industry, specifically in the agency side of the house. And we talked several times with staying close contact in my role as I continued to evolve inside of DelSouth. They asked me if I would come speak in a producer's retreat. And I said, well, sure, I'll go play golf and drink some beer and have a good time with your producers. So we did that and they had 15 producers at that point in time, and had an unbelievable experience with those guys. It's all some special while I was there. In that trip, I saw a bunch of individuals that cared about the success of DelSouth.
of the young folks that were coming up in the industry and a pride about their industry that hadn't experienced before. And kind of went back all, got back to work about two months later, those same attorney brothers approached me and asked me if I would ever consider coming to work for them inside of that environment. And Heidi, I barely knew how to spell insurance at that point in time. That was in 2000 and to do it. And so went to bed that night, told my wife about it. We had been in our whole mission to live in Nashville. We were living in Nashville at that point in time. And we both woke up the next morning to look each other and said, I think I'm supposed to go. And for some reason, God put it on our heart. And even my wife agreed to that, which I thought she'd been completely against that. And we moved into the insurance industry in 2000, October 2002, moved to Baltimore, and Greene Kentucky, which I never thought I would live, 'cause that's where I went to school. And we have it less since. And it has been an incredible experience for me. I came with a knowing-showns knowledge and was have been all by the industry so thankful that I get introduced to this industry and think it's one of the best kept secrets in the world from a career perspective. And honored to be part of it, big believer in protection of the independent agent and what we do and how we do it. And it's just become a passion of mine. And probably the biggest passion is watching young people the same reason why I came, watching young people be successful. And reaching, you know, reaching incomes and professional careers that they never possibly imagined because of what this industry has been able to offer. And it has been so fun to watch those young immature folks. And we talked a little bit about that behind a ton of interns inside of our organization become unbelievable professionals selling a model that's making and impacting people's financial protection inside of what they do. And their health insurance and making great decisions and being able to guide them, there's nothing more than that. That's really what my passion lies with how I got into the business. For these interns, what is the one thing that when you have an opportunity to interact with them that you're trying to impart on them to instill in them to take them from intern status to full time employee with your with your firm? So it's pretty cool. So we have a hundred about 150 producers as we sit today. So our organization, the most exact up 50 of those came through our intern program. So I've got experienced much, but the number one thing we love to see is teaching someone to become a student of the industry and the importance of that. And then there is no exception, no technology, nothing that's going to replace the importance of truly being a knowledgeable in your expertise. And we've even taken that to another level as we've introduced specialization into our models of them become true experts and not only insurance inside of that specialization, but knowing that specialization inside now that that may be, you know, that could be a right. And that could be underwater welding from a specialization, but knowing it as good as anybody and expanding to talk that language, we've gone out as far as hiring owners of those type of businesses to become experts inside of those things and really developing to really be part of that not just as a career as a producer of salesman. But to be someone that's embedded in that marketplace to truly make a difference inside the industry, not just inside of it insurance. But it's sort of like, you know, the kid that's a pretty good athlete, but he stopped growing at five, seven. So it goes and becomes a coach. You know, just because you're passionate about an industry, I mean, like if I may be passionate about trucking, but selling trucking insurance is like, you know what I mean? It's you can you can find that outlet within insurance and it doesn't have to be just boring old general insurance. I'm curious, take us to briefly like what's your internship? You guys have a program in terms of like a process that you follow. I'm curious to know what that is. You'll like this because it's got a lot of fun. First of all, so I have interns in our office all day long. So right now, I think company, why do we have 44 interns and when it started out, this used to be a sales function. Now we use it all completely across the company because we believe in it. We talk a little bit more about how that's kind of involved as well. But you know, the neat part of that is that they really start out as runners by every definition of it. They may go pick up boxes at the house. They may go clean the company car. They may be taking a trash out clean up the kitchen. And during that time, you know, you're looking for those core qualities of respect, appreciation, look people in the eye, manners, their work, the desire, their way that they approach whatever that they're faced with. They really don't know what they're living to test drive that whole time and watch and see what if those things arise. We also use a tool to test those before we'll hire an intern. We know what their profile is and we know if they fit in it. If they if we're that profile fits inside of our organization. So we'll try to place them inside of when disciplines, you know, a care management marketing sales, whatever that claims, employee benefits, whatever that may be based upon that profile. So we're already doing some preliminary set up which they don't know what we're doing. They're expected to see it their fit and you know, we'd probably hang on to one in three of them to see and identify those things. But then once we do so we try to hire a sophomore's family and you know get a year, a year and a half of that in there. Typically they're working 20 hours, 25 hours, whether school, typically UK or Western Kentucky University, but we do some with some other part in universities as well. And then get them into the mix and most of them have zero desire because of that best known seat that's unknown. So they're about our career and zero desire to get an interest and all of a sudden they start becoming attracted to what they're around. And you take them on a sales call you to you, you get them involved in client engagement. And you have them involved in parts of the business and all of a sudden they start saying, hey, this is a career that I really want to continue to explore and 90% of our interns that come here have a desire to want to move forward with this. We have to obviously be selected. We can't hire everyone of them and we have some great people. But we truly love on them coach them. You know, I always tell them if your breast smells, I'm going to tell you because I want them to walk out here as a better professional. A lot of times you have to teach them how to work. You do and a lot of parenting too. In today's world, we're not just teaching them work. We're teaching them etiquette anything from dress to the way they prepare, you know, prepare themselves for situations they walk in. Do they have a no pad with them? Do they have a pen? Are they prepared to do that? How accurate are they when you give them the set of instructions to be able to act that out? You're looking at some core stuff. But it's amazing how hungry they are. Once they realize it's a safe environment to take constructive feedback and then being able to take that and apply it. And then using their skill sets to simplify that has been a lot of fun. And it's probably one of the favorite things of our organization that keeps us. You know, we take a ton of pride if you put an age band around our 450 employees that we have here, we're almost equally spread between 2030, 30, 40, 40, 50, 50 and 60. And we take a ton of pride that there is a ton of energy that pushes up from the youngest to the oldest. They keep the us older folks young because of that energy that they bring to the table. And really you're desired to see them be successful. I truly think that is one of the best models that we have that truly differentiate us inside of the market. So I've got to ask building Houchens insurance group, the story of the owner, the employee ownership story. I told Bradley yesterday we talked briefly at 430 yesterday I said, I am wildly interested in hearing the story of how the agency came to be. I know that I was obsessed with esops. I'm obsessed with these thoughts. It's like a weird obsession to say one of the first things I knew about him is he was obsessed with esops. I'm obsessed with esops. You hear different things from different people about well, you got to be this much revenue. And then the way you took you guys took five legacy agencies emerged in one talk about all that. Well, so this is a little history. So you have these five legacy agencies that came together. And they were all independently owned organizations that were there. And underneath the little history behind that portion of those five agencies were bank owned at one point in time. And we were looking for an exit strategy from the situations there. And we were looking to bind it ourselves. And when we looked at that, obviously, the challenges of leveraging everything you could possibly have and being able to think we're about $15 million organization at that point in time and realized that we needed to explore some other options. So there was a 100% on esop, it's called a diversified esop. So they have representation of different industries. What's called diversity, diversified. And we became part of them in August of 2006. And we did it because it was a good solution at that point in time. I would love to tell you that we had a foresight today.
to see the impact it would really make and what difference it would make to our organization. But we did because it was a great fit for us at that point in time, that we could bring some immediate value to the overall diverse body, which is how it turns industries and that it was gonna make a great home for us. So as we did that, it and we began to understand the value of esophage that it does, no, that's employee stock ownership plan. So anybody that is a full time best of employee with us is annually receiving a contribution based upon the success of the overall organization that they get and it's just basically based on your W2, there are some caps that go along with that. But so everybody has shared ownership. So there is no anti-shell in his pockets in this or any of the executive team. This is something we share throughout. And we teach ownership mentality from day one when you are on board inside of House's insurance group. We talk about that. And as the industry has evolved, it has always typically been a producer led, strong organization or ownership in that perspective. We've been able to spread that throughout and have created this team environment because of that ownership mentality that everybody has that ownership mentality. And not only does it create great retention, but it creates great involvement and engagement and desire to better the organization in ways that you couldn't imagine. And remember, I come from a very corporate background 10 years inside of a publicly traded organization. We all ask ourselves, are why? Well, if we all have different wives, and then you could think about that from many different perspectives. But our why is it is our why is, hey, we wanted to offer unbelievable experience for our client and the benefit come back to every one of our owners. And our owners just happen beyond employees. And that's a model unbelievably hard to argue. And you can build on it and build on it. You know, we have, we are completely transparent with all of our financials. We talk about everything from contingencies to good months and bad months and challenges that we have. We're an EOS based company. So we have a business management practice that we talk about our rocks, our goals openly so that everybody's part of that and they feel that ownership. And when you're trying to accomplish tasks, what I'm so proud about our organizations are ability to be nibble and quick. And I think, Michelle, and has been a great example of how we could do this and how we embedded this and what we've done. When we decided, hey, we need to be committed to a better technology path. And we found the partner, and he is, he and his team have been an unbelievable partner. I know that's not this commercial for that, but I'm just telling you, it truly has been that. And there are ability to be able to adapt to the changes and the needs that we had. Well, that only comes when you have people that are fully body it. And we have an unbelievable team at all levels that are engaged because of that ownership mentality and that ESOP, it has truly been our differentiator. If you put three things that make how does insurance group, whether they are, I'm gonna talk about one of them internships. I truly believe that is a differentiator for us. I believe that ESOP and ownership mentality has been a true differentiator for us. And then finally, we team-sale everything. So we have multiple producers and specialization involved in every sale. We have those are the three things that have been engaged our success. And how we went from, you know, we were $15 million at that point in time, we said today, it had $150 million. - So you guys were 15, was that, was that 15 organic, or was there M&A in there as well? - If you took the M&A, it's maybe more 30 millions of M&A. If you take all the five, four agencies and any other acquisitions that we've added on that. So we've bolted on five other small agencies. So we have 15 locations now. And the organic growth has been from 30 million to the trillion hundred, right at 140 million as we sit today. - Well, you're kind of a rarity in that, you know, a lot of the big top 100 agencies, nothing wrong with this model at all. They tend to acquire, acquire, acquire, and then they get big boss Moses. They're just so big they get bigger. And it seems like you guys are like really good organic and you also acquire. - Well, so, Brad, that's a great, and so our model is not to grow through acquisition, but is to spread our footprint. So that we can take our model and be able to take that to other places and be able to expand that model. And we've been blessed with a sales model and a onboarding and training program production. And through those interns that we've been very successful on the development of new producers inside of our model. So that's, but yes, you make a great point. Then that continues to be our philosophy. But we still do look for, we're very, what you would say, control growth. We're not looking for anything out there from acquisition, we're very selective. And, you know, typically we're want to spread that footprint and get to the new markets that we haven't been in. - Hey Andy, artificial intelligence at HIGG. What was your first reaction? Where do you stand on it today? I'd love to get your opinion of, you know, skeptic believer when you first saw it and then fast forward to the day and where are you today? - So artificial intelligence, great question too. Very spectacular about it at first, but very scared of it at first as well. And needed to dive in to understand it. We love challenges and I love challenges, but needed to embrace that first. And I've been blessed when I went out and hired a 23 year old that was a friend of my daughter and her child, I think very highly of, that has come in and brought a whole other perspective and really enlightened me in the direction of our organization as openness and how it could be an enhancement to what we've done. So I would say that we started off skeptical and scared to excited and limit us because we see the value and we can truly bring to us than what we do. And so when we changed our mind, said to say, hey, how can we utilize technology? And they don't like me over using AI. They want me to talk about technology piece of it. But an AI is a completely important component of that. But how can it take what are the bottlenecks of what we do today and eliminate that so we can be that much more effective in what we do so well? So really it has been 100% of an enhancement. It took me a little while to realize that it's just not about an AI solution, you know, access to a go-pilot or a jet-gbt or a go-pilot. It's about having something to truly embed into our workflow with system. And this is what Sean and Outbar can just really been able to do. It flows with our ability to be able to execute more effectively what we do on a daily business. And you all will know this, Brown, it's got to know. But one of the challenges of our industry is we're such traditional, so I've done it one way so long to getting our folks acquainted with the change and our ability to be able to adapt to the challenges of that change forward. So you can always kind of have to win them over. It's always a sales process. But we've been able to experience the, we have already experienced the success of that. And we have so much more to go for our ability to be able to implement some of those things inside of our system as we become more standardized inside of our workflow model. - Yeah, I'll say this about our workflow relative to before and after Outmarket and some of the other technologies that we've used, it seems like the way that we do policy reviews or renewals has changed a lot utilizing those platforms and being able to review policies, or it could even be a prospect where we get a policy from somebody we can throw it into Outmarket and then compare versus what we're gonna provide. There's just so many things and I was saying this to Bradley, I guess in a couple of podcasts to go like, man, isn't it crazy where we are today versus where we were a year ago and what we have at our disposal at our fingertips. - That's a little scary thing. And then didn't you get excited to think where we're gonna be in three years and five years? - I don't know how I would do my job without some of the stuff I have now. And I'm like, I just did it six months ago, you know? - Right, right. - You know, just think about how policy check in from our perspective. I mean, it has been a change from for us. You know, even if you just take the time, not the satisfaction or not even the accuracy of pick up that we've got through that, but that has been a game changer. You take that at times, you know, 240 service reps and talk about efficiency, but that is a game changer to our business model that has freed up time that we can truly focus on, really truly offering the quality product to the end user being our product. - Yeah, one of the things Andy, I remember when we initially engaged with Alchons, I still remember what I called with your teammates and what was like really refreshing was the intention behind sort of like why they were looking at AI, right? It was not about like, we need AI for something that they were like very clear about, you know, the workflows, you know, it's taking our team members a lot of time and just to kind of lay out the point that people who start with
like, hey, get out of the specific challenges for our team members that you don't want to solve. Get a great starting point. There's just so much AI can do. But if you're so intentional about like, get other things that we want to start with, we want to actually bring the team members along. I still remember from a early call that was very much about like, I want-- like, you buy a lot of technology, and a lot of team members don't end up using it. How do we make sure that actually everybody buys into this? Everybody starts using this, and everybody starts seeing the impact they can have. And I think the way how chance approach it, and if you approach it in terms of being very intentional about the key things they want to do, and making sure they're bringing the people along, because ultimately, they are the ones who have to practice it, and see the impact that they're seeing today, right? Yeah. Well, and so, Sean, I remember that meeting well when you first came in, you brought your whole team up. But one thing that we had done, Scott Bradley, is that we had taken a workflow and identified from the very beginning all the way to the very end, and identified bottlenecks inside of that. And what we found is there was really about four or five places that were blatantly catastrophic, like impacting our ability to get our work done, and really piling work up on account managers' deaths that they were just unhappy, a dumb back crime upset, to been like their jobs. And I think now there's a whole other sense around that. First of all, they've seen us fix and address those issues through technology, specifically through things we've implemented with our partnership, but also it gives a sense of hope about what's the capable going forward, because we've already proven those out. So not only just the appreciation for the fix as we've made, but the excitement about where are we going with this, and where does it win limits? And I think that's the fun part of it. And that's why we, and what we know is the industry, and what we got to continue to remember is we do these things to enhance the client experience from their perspective. And how are we going to continue to pour into that as we find these tools? And I'm super excited about revenue opportunities that that's going to generate going forward. We started out with efficiency and effectiveness and quality, and that is slowly evolving to how to be backspinced and grow revenue, and to round the counts to ensure full no gaps inside of any coverage perspective. So you can see a long run when it's getting ready to lead out, just get it started out. How many employees you guys have? We have 450, as it says. We can get more than 400. You can have our interns on there and make it even a bigger number for one. Yeah, it's like when people add their VA's. Even though they are part of the team. That's exactly, exactly. Yeah. One of the things that we've been thinking about here now, obviously, I've got a team of 17. So managing 17 of 400. Totally different from all game. But obviously, I'm all in on AI. But I've picked up-- there's a level of skepticism, I think, in fear amongst employees. And I've done a lot of legwork and trying to dispel that. It was made like, because they see the press releases, such and such, fires, 600 employees. And they blame it on AI. It's just a good excuse sometimes. And one of the things we have looked at doing, because sometimes it's hard, because you have the skepticism. But then sometimes it's hard for an employee who is neck deep in work. It's like a force for the trees thing. They don't think owners do sometimes where it's like, hey, how could we automate this or how could we delegate this, et cetera. But to try and get them to take a step back, we've thought about implementing essentially an idea portal to say, hey, submit your ideas for a part of your job that can be automated with AI. By the way, we're not going to fire you. However much money that saves the company, if we implement it, we're going to give you a percentage of that as like a bonus to say, thank you. Have you guys dealt with that and have you looked at different ways to try and get? Because I would imagine that if you were an account manager for a day, you would come up with umpteen ideas of things that you could use out market for that maybe we haven't thought of yet. Now, we definitely miss. This is bombies. So we have a dedicated team that does specifically that it takes input from the different disciplines inside the business about where is it that we can improve. Now, you can only imagine with this all seen it. So we've got to be bringing-- And so that team helps us narrow that list down to say, hey, what are those things that can be most effective and where we could have made the greatest impact and addressable? So obviously, Lo is hanging through first. And we still have a significant pile of that to go through. But we have-- and we encourage that. And we want to create an environment where they feel that we're reactive to that and that we are out to really draw all sort of true solutions to those problems. And so we do some of the very similar. Our ours is a company wide-bound space upon that that we're all pulled in the same direction. And it could be a lot of fun at the end of this year for our folks. But you've got to encourage incentivizing. And you're going to find different categories of the laggers and those people that are super accelerated inside of that and balance those two out. And how do you bring the others along? You really have to have a management strategy. The other thing challenge I'd say is, hey, how are we looking at the new employees that we hire today? And are they versed? And do they have the skill set to want to take and apply those things? And how do we test for that in advance so that we can continue to propel ourselves forward? So we started doing a job shadow because we used a lot of tech and usually people who come here from other agencies, they struggle with the tech. I started just bringing them in and like shadow somebody. And we've actually had more people say, I can't do this. Then we have had that said, yeah, I'm like, OK, you just save me and you a whole lot of time and money. Well, then that's where they see their value. And then absolutely. And some people have that mindset that they want to change. Because they feel that that's the value that they brought. It's probably a little bit threatening inside of that as well. But especially for our existing employees, we have to bring that barrier down because our model is not to downsize. And what you said earlier about what's happened in industry, given that a bad name about that, that's not where we're going. And we are going to per enhancement. Now, we may not hire as many going forward as we gain efficiencies. But we're not letting anybody go from that perspective. And that is nowhere in our model or a game plan. But what isn't our modeling game plan is to pay our people more because we can do the better jobs, better and deliver better client experience and create and generate more revenue so that everyone benefits that. So our mission is to have fewer people making more money, doing more specific tasks, and less things that can be done through automation and technology. And that we talk about it openly in our ownership mentality. That's where we want to go. And that's who we want to be. And that's the thing, guys, for you, those of you who listen to this that are not agents, you know, there's like, that's the thing. It's like, yes, it's going to slow down hiring. But if you're doing-- if you're more efficient, and you are able to focus on higher level work, more important work, everybody's going to make more money. Hey, guys. You got it. Andy, my favorite questions coming up here on this podcast. All right. What are the winning independent agencies going to look like in five years versus the losing agencies? I love telling the story. I know everybody's heard it now. It's getting a bit-- I went in solitude, guys. We're part of a share-ex, which I'm a huge flavor in. But there was a speaker there, talking about AI one time. He came back and sent down. He asked a great question. Now, of course, I was scared to death, and I asked him, I said, hey, I said, you tell me this is going to put us out of business. He could grab my shoulder. And no, I'm not telling you to put it in business. I was telling you that people that don't adapt to it are going to be out of business. And made it so true. And so I think that us as independent agencies have to be number one quick. I think that we're going to have to continue to be well-versed and changed. And our ability to be able to adapt to that change. I think that the ones that can't do that, I think that will stall them at some point in time. But I think the ones that will truly thrive, Scott, and I love your question, are going to be the people that are willing to be able to adapt. And be never more quick into marketplace. And that comes inside of a culture, not inside the size of your ship or how quickly you can turn to a rudder. It's going to be a culture that's going to be open to that mindset and willingness to change. I also think that it's going to be those organizations that are client-focused, that understand the sales, that the true sales experience, and how do we differentiate those. Because not only are we going to have to worry about other threats coming from technology perspective, but we're going to have to worry about the bigs as they continue to get their people underneath them from mass amounts of data that they have. How do we continue to keep that? So I think the organizations that will thrive will be those people that can-- are those organizations that can have clean data, they don't have standardization so that they can maximize on technology. They can truly deliver an exceptional client experience through specialization inside of everything that they do. Yeah, I would say those are probably the greatest components just off top ahead. That's a great answer. Good thing I'm recording this. I'm going to get to go back and listen to that again. Oh, dude, I know that was-- that was a fantastic answer. I might use that sometime. So rapid fire clothes.
here guys rapid fire questions. I'm gonna ask five questions. Andy you're ready for the five questions. This is the IGP rapid fire questions. Okay. Scale of one to 10. One being lowest, 10 being the most nervous you have ever been in your entire life. Your daughter is on the stage. Find a job. Hey, she's up there. Miss Kentucky USA. She's on the stage with two or three other girls. They're getting ready to call out the winner. How nervous were you on a scale of one to 10? One of the throw up and cry at the same time. I can't even put it on a scale. You will never know what that feeling was like. There's so much behind that story but probably one of the coolest experiences of my life. Here's what you need to know for I go on any further is that my daughter is not a typical pageant girl and we never thought she had a chance of winning. I was on a plane that I've gotten there just a few minutes before which the first time she has announced is Miss Teen and me and my wife were dying. No way I could ever describe that moment other than this. You even mentioned it. Bring tears to my eyes and the hair stands on my back and my neck. Shout out to Maddie. Maddie, congratulations. That's awesome. Miss Kentucky USA, that's unbelievable. So next question. Who is the most famous person you have in your phone that you could pick up the phone and call right now? Wow, those famous person. I can, um, um, kind of, I think about that one. I said, "Well, famous person, I forget what I'm saying." I'm scared to say it's a politician. We won't make you say it. Same for Bradley. No, it's not mine. Yeah. Okay, next question. Red Clay Strays or Nashville Country. Red Clay Strays all day. Probably my favorite. Most of the impactful man I love what they stand for. I love the background and their music just, then it just hits the right home. All right, let me tell you a story real quick real quick. So I'm certainly sitting in the hometown of the Red Clay Strays. So we have a new, a real, really Southern lead singer at the grocery store. The other night. Yeah, what a cool dude. I mean, you can see this guy wearing sunglasses. I'm like, why is that dude wearing sunglasses in the side? I'm like, I was bringing Coleman. His wife's parents live in the town I live in a little suburb, but, uh, like the sunglasses may even stand out more, you know, but I shouldn't say this on the airscope. I'm gonna say this. So there's a new arena being built here locally. Nobody from mobile listens to this. Portals doing a sponsorship at the arena. And I was talking to the guy yesterday. And I noticed they announced this comedian. And this is a big arena company. They managed Acresher, Arena actually. And, uh, as well as comedian was announced, I was like, is that the first act? Is that never heard of that guy? And he's like, no, he's the first announced. And he's like, we got a nice little homegrown, you know, thing for the first concert in January. I said, oh, it's okay. So, so I can look forward to the Red Clay Strays. And he's like, uh, so this Red Clay Strays. I think they're going to open the arena up. But I didn't see the lead singer at the grocery store. They're coming to, uh, Nashville, October. And I cannot wait. Let's stop. If you go to Apple Music or Spotify, there's a live album on there. A live of Call of Hens. Okay. Call of Hens is one block from all of us. Like a year ago, they did a pop-up show. One block from all of us. That no idea. No, man. Next question. One atomic habit. Principal. One atomic habit. Principal. That every agency owner should steal. I was my favorite book of all times. Man, it starts with a small stuff. So, um, what I would tell you is that your habits are a direct reflection of your values. So look at your value. And does your habit, does your habit support that? And what your, what your organization stands for, what you stand for? I love that. Last question of the day. Are you ready? I'm ready. Finish this sentence. In 2030, the agency that wins will be the one that. I'm going to try not to be redundant here because some of the same things I said earlier, but it's going to be the one, the ones that are adaptable to change. That's what it's going to be. Now it's going to, now it's going to be the ones that can really take on and adapt to change and take the challenge. There's going to be challenges that none of us can even imagine. They're going to come in that time period because of technology. And, uh, you're going to be able to adapt change and have great parks. Andy, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, I hope we got comfort for you all one day. You all been a pleasure, Scott Bradley. Joel, thank you for all you do for us, man. You're a class act. Thank you all for having me today. I believe in what you all do. I've listened to your house podcast and you'll have fun doing it. And that's what this job needs to be like. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. Hey, co-host. I'm not not you, Bradley. Not you, Bradley. Hey, co-host. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thank you, Scott. Thanks, Bradley. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Guys, you were listening to the insurance guys podcast. And as I end every episode, rewards come from action, not discussion. Get your ass out from behind that desk today. Go out into the big bad world. Stop shuffling paperwork on your desk and looking up the $3 in commissions. Travelers didn't pay you last month and go build relationships. Make money for your wife, for your husband, for your kids college fund, and for your parents and in-laws like mine that are struggling out there. Go make money for them. Write good business for the agencies that you represent and write good business for the carriers that you represent. Bradley Flowers. I love you. Thanks, man. Thanks for showing. Guys, thank you guys for being here. Guys, you're listening to the insurance guys podcast and we love each one of you. Thank you so much for being a part of our family. And we'll see you back here real soon. Hey, Kay. Thanks for listening to the insurance guys podcast. If you need to know more about me or you need to get in touch with Scott, you can always reach me at the insurance guy online.com or email me at
[email protected]. And if you need to get in touch with Mr. Bradley Flowers, go to portalinsurance.com or email him at
[email protected]. Guys, we love you. Thank you so much for listening to our show and being a part of our family. And we look forward to seeing you again next week on the next episode of the insurance guys podcast. Take care.
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